Differences Between Roy Scheider's Narration and Schrader's Narration

Just to try and clear up the confusion Roy Scheider did the English Language narration for the film when it was released to theatres back in 1985.

When the film finally came to VHS (at a cost of $99.95) in the late 80's it still had Scheider's narration.

When it was released on DVD in the late 90's Scheider's narration was replaced by Paul Schrader, the director, doing the narration. His voice sounded somewhat like Roy's but he does have a lisp that would sometime reveal itself. This DVD release also gave Schrader a chance to go back in and change a few things to match up more closely to the Japanese language version of the film (which was narrated by Ken Ogata). The most notable change was in the opening monologue. thekarilienisthmus note above first has the words as said by Scheider in the film and VHS. He next typed the passage as it is on the DVD. He simply made a mistake in typing Rob rather then Paul.

My speculation (and I could be wrong) is that when the DVD was being prepared for release that Roy S's people wanted more money for the use of his narration then the company putting out the DVD wanted to pay. This lead to Schrader doing it himself. I actually found myself listening to the Ken Ogata narration more often as time went on.

According to the Criterion Collection's website in their new DVD release coming in July, we will be able to chose between the Scheider narration (I wonder if this is because his passing away last year solved the money issue?) or the Ogata one. Although, I would add that we will actually have to wait until we get the DVD in our hands to be sure of which one they used.

One other note the film that Mishima directed and starred in towards the end of his life entitled "Patriotism" is also being released by the CC at the same time as this one. It will contain several interviews with Mishima and you may want to pick them up at the same time.

Hope that this helps

I'll make a good Gordon, Gordon!

I agree, this *is* an incredible movie.

What was it about Runaway Horses that you didn't like? Just curious.

Thanks for taking the time to get to the real facts of this Kerry and thanks to Mr Schrader for replying to your email. My post from over two years ago above obviously contained guess work that has been proven wrong. Apologies to those who have been mislead by it.

A couple of points based on his reply. It is interesting that it was a mistake by someone working on the transfer of the film to DVD that caused the error. It is also interesting that Mr Jasmin has a slight lisp that is a bit like Mr Schrader's. Next I have read somewhere (though it is too long ago for me to begin to remember where) that, at the beginning of the film, Jasmin's narration is a closer equivalent to the Japanese narration that Mr Ogata reads than Scheider's. I don't speak enough Japanese to verify this so I only mention it in case someone who is comfortable with the language might fill us in.

Again thanks for taking the time to do this and for letting me know about it.

I'll make a good Gordon, Gordon!

Thanks for clearing that up, Kerry. Very helpful.